Posted By Brian Coyle On July 11, 2013 @ 9:12 am In Football | No Comments

[1]As with most rookie quarterbacks, Ryan Tannehill went through some growing pains in his first season. However, as 2012 progressed, the eighth pick in the NFL Draft became more comfortable under center.

Now it’s the second year in command for the Dolphins quarterback and many football pundits from around the media world are predicting big things from the Texas A&M product.

One of those pundits is ESPN’s Ron Jaworski, who broke down Tannehill in his NFL Live Quarterback Countdown List.

One thing that Jaworski immediately stated was that Tannehill was able to show some positives last season without a lot of help offensively.

“Tannehill showed a lot of positive traits despite having very few weapons at his disposal,” Jaworski said.

He expects that a year of experience and the new additions to the Dolphins offense such as Mike Wallace, and returning players like Lamar Miller and Brian Hartline, will lead to visible progression from Tannehill.

“I expect to see significant improvement with a better supporting cast in 2013,” Jaworski said.

Another positive that stood out to the ESPN analyst was something that most rookies have trouble with when they first enter the league: dealing with a pocket that’s breaking down. When the pressure was bearing down, and when there looked to be no way out, Tannehill was calm and collected, and able to avoid the incoming rushers.

“For a rookie, Tannehill was very good throwing with bodies around him, in what I call a muddied pocket,” said Jaworski.

But of course Tannehill did suffer through some rookie bumps and bruises , and there’s one area that the former Eagles and Dolphins quarterback thinks Tannehill and the rest of the Dolphins need to really improve on.

“The area in which Tannehill and the entire Dolphins offense must improve is third down,” Jaworski said. “Tannehill had the worst rating of all starting quarterbacks, including seven of his 13 interceptions.”

Though Jaworski ranked Tannehill 24th out the 32 projected starters in the NFL, he sees the arrow pointing north in South Florida.

“As he begins his second season as the Dolphins starter, the arrow is definitely trending upward. With more experience – and better weapons – I would expect Tannehill to have a big year and move substantially up my big board.”